#8 rod-end bearing's gone :)

[68CamperSpecial]

I made a post last week about just getting this truck from my dad, 68 camper special with a busted 350.

I was fortunate enough to mention the truck to a co-worker and it turns out he worked on 350s a lot with his dad.

Initial results:

Cracked exhaust manifold on the passenger side,
distributor was put together wrong and wouldn't allow for advance "stuck",
and a cracked gas line.

So that explains why my dad always complained about it not making any power up top, strange how is mechanic never found it.

So we cranked it over and heard a horrific noise, then checked the flywheel. Rotated the motor by hand and didn't hear / feel any binding (valve to piston type stuff). So we started it once more before deciding to pull the pan (500,000,000 bolts give or take a few) and quickily were able to wiggle the #8 rod-end back and forth.

So we're thinking it lost oil pressure and that swapping in new bearings (after checking the crank) with a new high pressure oil pump might get me on the road long enough to get a new motor setup. I might as well throw on new headers while I'm at it to.

I just loved looking at the tank designed lower control arms, the ones on my honda are one piece cast aluminum and weigh like 2lbs compared to what looks like 20+ of steel on the truck

Any advice on the half-hearted rebuild? I was also assuming that we can't simply put a new pump on the motor without flushing the oil passages first, there must be some left over bearing somewhere. Maybe it's too late and we should pull the whole thing apart instead since the old pump may have already circulated shavings through the motor already?

Thanks for any advice!